Top 10 tips from leading retailers

Trailblazing retailers never stop looking for new opportunities to delight
their customers with unexpected products, service and experiences.

These tips give you 10 real-world examples of better ways to:

Grow revenue through better customer interactions in store and online

Reduce costs with operational efficiency

Bring ideas to market faster

1. Design and bring products faster to market

At the luxury jewelry brand Astley Clarke, the creative team is rarely in
the same country, much less the same room. As a result, G Suite has become
a natural part of the creative process from inspiration to online sales.
Team members collaborate on jewelry, marketing campaigns and the website by
sharing concept sketches, gemstone images, prototype photographs and other
digital assets in Google Drive.

You can use Drive to make sure your marketing team, creative agencies,
resellers, and other vendors are always working with the same up-to-date
content. Drive’s sharing features and access controls make working with
external partners simple and secure.

G Suite helps us work better internally as well as externally, with our
suppliers and vendors.

—Bec Astley Clarke, Founder and Chairman, Astley Clarke

2. Improve supplier collaboration

At Made.com, growth is based purely on market demand, so speed is a
critical part of the culture. To give the customers what they want, the
company launches two new furniture collections a week. To keep their
widespread team connected and on schedule with approvals and production,
they count on G Suite.

You can bring your products to market faster by collaborating and sharing
product designs, quality guidelines, KPIs and mock-ups on Google Drive.
Use shared Google Sheets or Calendars to manage tasks.
Crowdsource design feedback from employees, suppliers and manufacturers
with Google+ and hold live online meetings with suppliers in Google
Hangouts.

We’re using G Suite on a day-to-day basis. They make everything quick,
efficient and very simple.

—Made.com

3. Empower store associates for better customer service

Design Within Reach separates itself from the competition by providing a
customer experience as unique and inviting as its furniture products.
Employees use G Suite to provide a consistent experience across every
location by instantly sharing inventory lists, promotion schedules, store
layouts and PR updates. Store associates always have the latest product
information at their fingertips and can use their tablets to answer any
question from the store floor—or even at a client’s home.

Help your store associates make more sales by putting the answer to every
customer question in the palm of their hand. They can use their phones or
tablets to access product specs, promotions, videos and FAQs stored in
Google
Drive. They can even reach out to their colleagues by posting a
question on Google+.

We want to be more nimble. We want to be faster. G Suite allows us to be
closer to the customer.

—Design Within Reach

4. Better in-store experience with digital signage

Imagine running into your favorite clothing store in Chicago during a
snowstorm and seeing a colorful digital display of cozy sweaters. Or you’re
shopping in San Francisco for an outfit for a company party and the store’s
display screens show cocktail dresses on sale. Chico’s FAS stores
will be using Chromeboxes
to personalize the shopping experience by tailoring their digital signage
to the city, the store, and even the specific department.

The Chromebox devices run Chrome OS,
which is a powerful, affordable and easy-to-manage device platform for
digital signage. This allows Chicos to handle content in the store
digitally thereby reducing cost of print signage,and increasing the
immediacy and relevance of the in-store experience for the buyer.

Chromeboxes as a signage solution met all of our tests for affordability
and ease of management.

-Chico's

5. Manage store operation processes online

The French men’s retailer Celio uses G Suite to achieve the speed it needs
to lead its market segment. Google allows Celio to automate key processes
like collecting sales data during peak sales periods when it's critical to
keep stores properly stocked. It used to take over 4,000 calls a day to
collect sales data from around the world, but now store managers simply
enter it in Google Forms. From there it automatically flows into
Google
Sheets, is turned into dynamic graphics using G Suite Script, and is
shared instantly between headquarters, stores and distribution centers.

If you want to streamline your own business, G Suite can move your
operations and processes online. For instance, with Google Forms it only
takes a few minutes to create electronic forms for use cases such as
product recalls, time off requests, supply orders and company policies.
Employees can access and update them anywhere, anytime from kiosks,
computers or mobile devices.

G Suite has enabled us to communicate more easily and quickly, and to be
closer to our teams worldwide and in each store.

—Celio

6. Train your store workers anytime, from any device

The famous patisserie Pierre Hermé Paris has boutiques in Europe, the
Middle East and Asia, but the success of each shop relies on the special
touch of Chef Hermé in Paris. To make sure the brand lives up to its
reputation worldwide, Chef Hermé trains his staff by conducting global
online meetings with Google Hangouts. The recorded video conferences are
then stored on Google Drive so anyone can take a refresher course anytime
they need it.

The fact that Mr. Hermé doesn’t have to travel for staff training means
he can concentrate on the core of his craft—creating new products.

—Olivier Lacoste, Head of IT, Logistics, and Sales Shops at Pierre Hermé
Paris

7. Improve information sharing between corporate and store employees with
social networks

Woolworths is Australia’s largest retailer, so it used to be a real
challenge for the company to communicate effectively among its 200,000
employees. Now, Google+ makes it
easy for everyone to share ideas, introduce new employees, follow the daily
store news, or anything else with co-workers in their own store or across
the entire organization. By giving everyone a fun and simple tool for
engagement, Woolworths created a community that connects and collaborates
not just at work, but even from home.

You can use Google+ to create your company’s community and help employees
generate best practices, share ideas for increasing sales and provide
feedback on new products.

All of our people have a tool that actually allows us to share ideas and
engage with each other.

—Woolworths

8. Manage employees’ tasks and schedules

When Tiger Lily’s management realized they were handling more IT problems
than flower orders, they knew something had to change. They moved to G
Suite and their business tools suddenly became a huge help instead of a
hindrance. Their email is automatically backed up in the cloud. Google Docs make
it easy to monitor inventory, sales and staffing. And with Google
Calendar it’s simple to track the entire staff’s appointments and
availability.

If you want to create a dynamic schedule, use Google Sheets and Calendar
together to plan and distribute tasks, track their completion and manage
exceptions all in one place. Employees can access schedules from any
computer or mobile device and directly add comments or change their status.

We're flower people. We're not computer people.

—Tiger Lily

9. Create an information hub

When you’re on the cutting edge of fashion, you have to move fast. That’s
why AllSaints implemented G Suite not just at headquarters, but in
all its factories, stores and offices around the globe. Now, every employee
has instant access to all the company’s latest information at all times.

If you want to keep your entire organization in sync, you can publish all
your internal news, executive blog posts, project schedules, product
documents, local and store-wide promotions, online forms and training
content to a single Google Site. It’s a one-stop destination for important
information that any employee (or a select group) can access anytime, from
any device.

Our business is collaborative, driven by experimentation—and we need
tools that can keep up with us. For us, that’s Google.

—AllSaints

10. Recruit, interview and onboard workers quickly

The popular fresh food retailer EAT works hard to create a great experience
not just for its customers, but also for its employees. For example, the
company’s HR department uses Google Sites to give staff an easy-to-use
website where they can find all the training and support materials they
need in one place.

When employee turnover is high, shortening the recruiting and onboarding
process can really impact the bottom line. Your company can use G Suite for
every HR process starting with employee recruitment. After interested
candidates apply using Google Forms, you can interview them from anywhere
in the world using Google Hangouts video conferencing. Then, streamline
the onboarding process by using a Google Sites website for one-stop access
to new employee checklists, tasks and training materials.

Investing in innovation is the way to bring more customers to your
business. Since implementing G Suite, there’s no looking back.